As I was staying in Taipei for just a few days, I only had time to see this beautiful city in a speed mode.

The first point was to get to Taipei, as I wasn’t staying in the city. 

I took the HSR (High Speed Rail) from Changhua to Taipei. The whole journey was around 1 hour and 25 minutes, don’t remember precisely. Equipped with a big cup of iced tea, headphones and Spotify, I arrived to Taipei quite swiftly.

The whole infrastructure of the public transport is extremely efficient and there are no problems with getting around the city. 

Here we go – that’s the inside of the Taipei 101. Simply saying, this is a huge skyscraper with plethora of luxury shops and amazing food hall, filled with fantastic restaurants and shops selling various pastries, sweets, cakes, fast food, souvenirs, gifts – you name it. I was really impressed by the size of it. 

You can spend a whole day on wandering around this shopping mall, however my plan was to experience an amazing view from the observatory level, which is just one of the most popular attractions, when we talk about Taipei. 

Sadly, when I arrived to the reception desk, there was an information about the visibility from the observatory deck – it was poor. Hence, I decided to forfeit my plan of getting there on that day, probably would be a waste of money. 

The only rational decision was to head down to the food hall and have a decent meal, which would compensate the disappointment with the weather.

Another rational decision was to wait 45 minutes for a table in Din Tai Fung, one of the best places for dumplings, soups and noodles. The meal was amazing – the whole experience will be covered in the next post on the website.

After hearty and satisfying meal it was time to face the gigantic skyscraper from outside and experience the vibe of Taipei.

If you follow my social media, you probably noticed how excited I was, when posting photos from Taiwan. I couldn’t help, but take as many photos as I could, even though the best photo wouldn’t express how I felt, when I was exploring the city for the very first time. On top of that that was my first trip to Asia. Everything seemed to be different – the air, buildings, taxis and people. 

I had plenty of time to walk around the city centre, before heading to airbnb. I was tired, jet lagged as hell, but still excited and motivated to keep on exploring and getting to know the city.

The thing I noticed almost instantly is the huge contrast in architecture. Modern contrasted with old, dated buildings.

In Taipei, the main streets are huge with vast traffics, however behind those tall buildings there are still charming neighbourhoods with extremely narrow roads, hundreds of air con units sticking out from the houses, to be found. That’s where I was staying for a few days, whilst in Taipei. 

Next day:

The plan for the next day was to visit the National Palace Museum. The museum features a permanent collection of thousands of ancient Chinese artefacts and artworks. 

After a short journey on a metro, it was time to take a yellow cab, which took me directly to the place. 

I was amazed by the view – palms, evergreen hills and the majestic palace. 

Can you guess what did turn out to be the most popular exhibition in the whole museum?

Come on, take a shot. I will give you some time to think.

The most popular exhibitions turned out to be the following:

After hours spent on walking and admiring different artefacts and artworks, the batteries in my legs ran out of juice and I couldn’t walk anymore. I bought some souvenirs and decided to head back.

Now, we’re back to where I took the cab to the National Palace Museum. The next attraction was a similar Ferris wheel to London Eye, so why not give it a go.

Shit that was scary! Never again.

I think that’s what I wanted to show you in today’s post. The next post that will follow is going to be my food experience in Taiwan.